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Google, Yahoo Cry About Ad-Blocking (cnbc.com)
JustAnotherOldGuy writes: Google and Yahoo have accused ad-blocking software Shine of "destroying the relationship" between advertisers and consumers, after an executive from the company called its solution a "nuclear weapon" threatening the industry. Ad blocking software use grew 41 percent in the 12 months to August 2015 and there are now 198 million active adblock users around the world, according PageFair. Benjamin Faes, managing director of media and platforms at Google, called Shine's technology a "blunt" solution that punishes users and good advertisers, and said, "Blocking all ads I think it's diminishing my experience of advertising and in that case we see an issue for the user themselves." It appears that these advertising executives still don't "get it", and are disingenuously tone-deaf to the legitimate complaints raised about ads.
I wonder if Shine blocks that article, because it is a great advertisement for their product.
Ad companies are routinely doing drive by malware infections. It's precisely this lack or review and certification of ads that is their problem. Until they are willing to pay editors to review and approve ads they will continue to be abused by ad companies and the only solution the consumer has at that point is the nuclear option. The very existence of autoplay video advertising and malware loaded ad's is direct evidence of their problem.
When the ad's go back to editorial approved ad's hosted and run by the companies providing the content no on will be able to block the ads. But this will mean the companies accepting the advertising have to take responsibility for the crap advertising they accept.
Yes we are looking at reviving the subscription option so that you can do something like this
There actually is good advertizing. I mean, actually good and not merely unobtrusive. It's very rare but it exists. Here's how to see if any particular ad is an example:
Are people better off for having seen the ad than if they hadn't?
This comes in a few forms:
Reminders for something they wanted to do but forgot, or didn't think about. (People who bought X also bought Y.)
Coordination issues. (Eg cellphone networks, or electric cars, or something else that needs multiple people buying it at the same time)
Bargains (actual ones, not fake sales)
Fundamentally new items
Of course, pretty much everyone will think that their pet product is worthy of everyone's attention, which is why basically all advertizing is equivalent to V!@GRA spam, only more deceitful.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
This is why I rip all my DVDs and Blurays. I just want a directory .mkv files. No messing with physical media, trailers, or any such nonsense.
Yes, it would be easier to torrent, but it just feels off to torrent something that I'm holding the disc for. Plus I like the quality of my rips (e.g., I like English subs for all my movies, so I can watch in a noisy environment if I need to, but not turned on by default) .
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
I have yet to visit a paid (or free) mainstream media news site that had anything -- and I do mean anything -- on it that was worth the time it took to read it.
What you get from these organizations is prop and, in some cases, agitprop. Often with an obvious left wing or right wing or other wing (as with reason.com) bias driving the whole mess. Not to mention (he mentioned) the business with... So, science says this, let's "balance" it with some bewildered superstitious malfuckery...
We have had decades of drug war propaganda, save the children propaganda, terrorist propaganda, outright censorship, FCC keeping the airwaves completely out of the people's hands, superstitious pandering... and for this, they think they've done something deserving of my earning them money. Fuck the lot of them.
Is it so bad if you fund your blog out of your pocket? I do it. It's not all that horrific an expense. Of course, I don't load my pages down with flash and videos and deeply multi-linked ads (or hardly any ads for that matter) and other crap; it's basically HTML and CSS and so my bandwidth usage is rational. I offer tshirts on the sidebar. They don't jump around, they don't suck content from anywhere but my domain, and if you don't actually click on them, they do nothing but sit there. I sell a few. Enough to fund the blog, anyway.
I'm not going to make any real money from it, but so what? I have an actual occupation, you know, something that produces social value (which, I seriously assert, is NOT something news outlets do, nor advertisers.)
Seriously, there's no more a guarantee, nor should there be, for advertising driven web pages than there was for buggy whip manufacturers.
We have widespread communications now. We -- well, at least I -- don't need some talking head to tell me what to think.
Yes, and if Google died a horrible death tomorrow? I'd just have to change my email around a bit. Mediocre search results designed to appeal to the average-and-lower user; search ranking by popularity. That essentially means that Google's search results are the Kardassians and Donald Trumps of content. Like it? More like "run screaming from it."
Links get around without the need for search engines. I can't help it if the special butterflies don't know how to do that. They can learn. A nice web directory beats the hell out of a search engine any day, anyway. Curated links.
So to return to my original thesis, I have no obligation to tolerate anyone's advertising. Period. You don't want to provide (whatever), then don't. I will not miss you. Not even a little bit. Likewise, no one has to come to my websites. Fine. Perfect, in fact.
If I want to buy something, I go to the actual source and I look around there. I do not now, and will never again, click on web page ads. Those people have abused the privilege of consuming my computer's CPU cycles and monitor pixels and network bandwidth far too often and far too egregiously. Word of mouth (and its net equivalent, word-of-keyboard) is more trustworthy anyway.
Anyone else remember Google's text ads? You know, back when Google was actually responsible about advertising? Before they changed from "never do evil" to "never not be greedy fucks and btw here's this huge animated twitchy pile of shite for you to enjoy"?
The whole idea that the money-for-propaganda news model is sacred is repellent to me; you must eat the advertising because we're a big money operation thing... just as bad.
Maybe the day of the advertiser and the news organization is over. It certainly should be over, as far as I'm concerned.
I don't give a microfuck about what happens to them. Because they never gave a microfuck what happened to me and mine. And they lie and distort and lead the gullible around by the nose. Let them hide behind their paywalls. Let them suffocate and die there, too. /rant
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
I have to say, I just added /. to the AdBlock exclusion list, just to see what ads I'll get, and I'm impressed.
I'm seeing two ads at the top of the page, both of which are relevant to my interests - guns and hiking gear. The latter is, in fact, specifically for a product that I wanted to buy for a while, and was looking for a good deal for, and it offers a discount. No sale this time because they don't have the desired size/color, but still, this gets my nod of approval (and a bit of unease because of how accurate it is).
So, thumbs up from this Slashdot user, and I think I'll keep the exclusion.
"There actually is good advertizing. I mean, actually good and not merely unobtrusive. It's very rare but it exists."
Yes, there is some. For example, I just typed "Toyota Camry tie rod ends" into Google. The search page comes back in three or four seconds and near the top there is a box that says sponsored, and has half a dozen images of tie rod ends from various suppliers ... with prices .. in USD. I wonder if I lived in Canada if the prices would be in Canadian dollars.
No problem there, really. Google is trying to be helpful as well as trying to make money. And they are succeeding. That's fine. I wouldn't block those ads even if I could.
You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
(People who bought X also bought Y.
That is actually the main reason I used to buy connectors from Farnell. Because none of the usual suspects (Farnell, RS, Mouser, DigiKey, etc) ever thought to link the connectors and specific crimp pins that you really need together. They were usually hell to find.
Farnell however had a "people also bought X" feature and 99% of the time, X was the correct, unique crimp pin which went with the shell. The crimp tool would also be in the list if I felt like shelling out an extra $500[*].
I've not been buying these recently so I don't know if they've all got a clue now.
[*]If you've never used a proper $500 crimp tool and you've had to crimp stuff then you are missing out.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
To me the question of adblocking is VERY simple...are Google and Yahoo willing to actually stand behind their product and pay for any and all damages when they let malvertising through? No? Then they can jump off the nearest bridge.
Their "product" is a huge security threat and this has been shown time and time again to be so. If you block advertising? The risk of malware infection drops so low as to be off the charts, in fact I can't even remember the last PC that came through the shop that got infected when the user had adblocking enabled. As long as their "product" remains the #1 risk to a computers security I WILL install adblocking on every PC that crosses my desk, to do otherwise just to support some corp that can't keep malware out of their network? Would simply be foolish.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
It's the advertisers that destroyed the relationship. Their dancing snakes and popups, popunders have necessitated adblocking.
Ads quickly became obnoxious and were easily blocked. Then they became sneaky and required a bit of effort to block, but they were blocked.
Now that we block ads, it's a war. Since the advertisers continue to go over the top, I now look at pages with 50% white space because their divs are whited out